Management

He was appointed to the Board as financial director in September 2010.

Kobus serves on the boards of various group companies including Aveng (Africa), McConnell Dowell and Aveng Trident Steel.

Prior to joining the Aveng Group, Kobus was the chief financial officer of ArcelorMittal (South Africa) and also held various senior management positions at ArcelorMittal.

Stuart White

Managing Director

Stuart White joined the group in 1982 as a Civil Engineering student and completed a National Higher Diploma. In this time he obtained experience on various civil engineering and mining contracts. Having spent time both within and outside the South African borders, he is well versed in including an International Airport and a Water Supply Project in Lesotho and opencast coal mining for the then Amcoal and Randmines. As a project manager from 1990, he managed various opencast coal mines for Moolmans in Mpumalanga and was subsequently promoted to a contracts manager and then contracts director in 1993. In 1997 he was promoted to general manager of West Africa and relocated to Accra, Ghana where he managed Moolman Mining (West Africa), which included civil engineering and mining contracts in Mali, Guinea and Ghana for numerous clients. He was appointed to the Opencast Mining board as an executive director in 1999. In February 2013 he was promoted to managing director of Aveng Moolmans and appointed to the board of newly formed Aveng Mining.

Japie du Toit

Operations Director

Japie obtained a National Diploma in Civil Engineering from the Pretoria Technikon. He then went on to work as an engineer for the South African Transport Services during the construction of the Richards Bay coal line. Japie was introduced to contract mining when he joined Aveng Moolmans in 1989. He managed various contracts in the Witbank area as well as Wonderwater Coal and Sandsloot Platinum Contracts. In 1996 he was appointed to the Aveng Moolmans Board. After managing the South African operations for three years, he was transferred to West Africa in 2003. He was based in Bamako and his responsibilities included all Moolmans operations outside the SADC region, which included Yatela and Sadiola in Mali, Siguiri and Fayalala in Guinea, Iduapriem in Ghana and Star & Comet in Tanzania. Japie return to South Africa in 2011 as the operations director to oversee all the Moolmans operations. In July 2015, he was appointed as chief operating officer of the newly formed Aveng Mining consisting of Aveng Moolmans and Aveng Shafts & Underground and serves on the board.

Trevor Naidoo

Financial Director

Trevor Naidoo is a Director of the Aveng Mining And Aveng Moolman’s Board having joined in October 2015. He is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and Chartered Management Accountant. He is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Trevor has had more than 10 years in the Mining Industry having worked in De Beers, Lonmin Plc and Vendanta Plc. His experiences have included various roles within the Finance, Commercial, Marketing and Information Management disciplines operating across operational and strategic levels. Trevor has also had experiences within the media, banking and services industries. These include blue chip listed companies as well as smaller more privately owned businesses. Whilst Trevor has worked across various industries, he has also worked globally and been resident in the United Kingdom and Namibia.

Chris Knoetze

General Manager

Chris matriculated in Klerksdorp in 1972. In January 1974 he started as a learner official at Hartebeesfontein Gold Mine. Chris worked in several underground mines in South Africa and was also involved and responsible for various expansions of mines, as well as establishing of new mines in South Africa and abroad. Chris obtained his Mine Manager’s certificate for Metaliferous Mines in 1997. He left South Africa in April 1999 to work in Tajikistan. He managed several mines in South Africa, Tajikistan, Mali, Armenia and Chile as General Manager. Chris has 41 years of experience in underground and surface mining. He joined Aveng Shafts & Underground in 2009 and served on the Shafts & Underground Board as well as Exco for Aveng Mining.

Dewald Hattingh

Regional Operations Director

Dewald completed his National Higher Diploma in Civil Engineering in 1992. He joined Africon, a Civil Engineering Consulting company, who provided a bursary for his studies. In 2001 he joined Moolmans in West Africa. During this period he was a Contracts Manager in Guinea, Mali and Ghana. Dewald returned to South Africa in January 2010 to take up the position as General Manager Plant for Aveng Moolmans, South African operations. In June 2010 he was appointed to the Aveng Moolmans board.

Adrian Jackson

Commercial Executive

Adrian matriculated from Pretoria Boys High School in 1977 and joined LTA Construction in 1980 as a trainee quantity surveyor. After qualifying in 1984, he worked on building and civil projects in South Africa and Botswana. He was appointed as a director of LTA Building Gauteng in 1997 responsible for overseeing the company's commercial and quantity surveying function. He left the group during 2001 to take up employment in Dublin, Ireland for a major building contractor. He later re-joined the group, working at Grinaker-LTA Angola’s Luanda-based building and civil operations until moving to Aveng Moolmans in 2005. Adrian's portfolio includes dealing with the commercial, contractual and legal aspects of Aveng Moolmans as well as an involvement with new business procurement. Adrian was appointed to the Exco in 2012.

Trevor Nair

SHERQ Executive

Trevor has over 15 years’ experience in various operational and risk management roles, predominantly in the construction and mining environment. He has a BA Admin Degree through UNISA majoring in Industrial Psychology and Business Management (Risk). He joined Aveng Moolmans on the 5th of January 2009 and is responsible for Safety, Health, Environment, Risk and Quality Management. Prior to joining Moolmans, Trevor worked at Transnet Capital Projects as the national SHE manager. His passion and focus is enabling culture change and building on new ideas, agitating for change and bringing about new approaches to problem solving. The challenge in Aveng Moolmans is to switch from an independent ‘command and control’ environment to one that is totally interdependent which enables ‘trusted teams’ to take full accountability and ownership for SHERQ. The ultimate prize is to make Aveng Moolmans Mining the International Contractor of Choice.

Robert Nicholson

New Business Executive

Robert has a BTech Mining Engineering Degree obtained through the University of Johannesburg. He is a member of both the Association of Mine Managers South Africa (AMMSA) and the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). He has extensive experience in various operational and technical management roles, in both Open Cut and Underground Mining. He started his career with AngloGold Ashanti and worked his way up the production ranks within South Africa's deep level Gold Mining industry, obtaining both his Mine Overseers’ and Mine Managers’ Certificates. He joined Aveng Moolmans at our Phoenix contract as planning manager in 2007 and was later promoted to production manager. After taking a consultancy position in Johannesburg in 2009, Robert returned to Aveng Moolmans in 2011 and is now involved with tendering on new business and responsible for the technical and planning aspects. Robert was appointed to the EXCO in 2012.

Stephen Goodhead

Stephen studied Civil Engineering at Technikon Natal from 1992 – 1995 through a bursary from LTA. On completion of his studies, he spent 11 years working for LTA’s ‘Roads and Earthworks Africa’ Division on projects across Africa and the Caribbean, constructing roads, dams, airports and other civil engineering projects. During this period Stephen gained vast experience in carrying out projects in logistically, socially and climatically challenging conditions. He left LTA in 2003 and continued his career at one of South Africa’s leading civil engineering construction companies as a director responsible for Civil, Infrastructure and Tailings Dams projects in the Mining Industry across South Africa and other African regions. Stephen joined Aveng Moolmans in June 2012 where he works as the regional general manager for West and East Africa based in Bamako, Mali

Vincent Matlala

HR Executive

Vincent commenced his HR career in 1994 as a Graduate Trainee at Anglo Vaal. He came up the HR ranks and acquired experience in multiple mining commodities including Manganese, Coal, Gold and Platinum. During this period he has had exposure to all facets of the HR function in an industry notorious for its unique challenges with respect to human capital. His HR experience was acquired both at operations and corporate levels, with his first appointment as Operations HR Manager at Union Mine, Anglo Platinum in 2004. His assignments at corporate level includes Group Employee Relations Manager at Gold Fields - SA, and Head of HR: Mining at Anglo Platinum. Vincent matriculated at Lehlabile Secondary School in Mamelodi, Pretoria in 1989. He holds a Bachelors’ degree - University of Fort Hare 1992, a post graduate diploma in Labor Relations - University of Natal 1993, and a Certificate in HR Management - UNISA 2002. He recently completed his Executive MBA programme at University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business in 2015. In addition to formal qualifications, he successfully participated in HR Management and Strategic Leadership development programmes. He is passionate about human capital optimisation, business partnering, stakeholder relations enhancement, and influencing organisational behaviour.